Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Here is my run to Wags for the week. Not as much stuff as last week but still some good freebies. I only did 2 Transactions. I have included some additional information based on some of the questions I've received. You will see my total before Qs, after Qs, my totals taking RR and MIRs into account, my OOP and my grand totals. Wow, that's a mouthful!

I do want to clarify a few important points... First of all, in my world RR = $$$$.

If I earn a RR on a transaction I credit it to that transaction. Once it's been credited to that transaction it becomes cash. So if I were to buy $100 worth of stuff and pay with $99 in RR and earn $0 RR I would say that transaction cost me $99. The RR are like cash. I wouldn't consider that costing me $1 just because that was what I paid OOP, what about the $99 in RR I spent? That's real money.

Second, I like to have as little OOP as possible. So you'll notice my OOP is usually under $.50. My goal is to have a low OOP and pay for items with RR that will return to me an equal or higher number of RR.

Third, I don't include taxes in my scenarios. Including sales tax in my scenarios would only be helpful to you if you were my neighbor. Sales tax varies from 0% in some areas to over 12% in others (ouch!). Not to mention some areas exempt food or medicine or medical supplies.

2 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Hi Christie, I just wanted to say that I love seeing all of the things you are able to buy on a weekly basis. I think it's very helpful when I see your picture because I can compare it to scenarios I would like to try as well and seeing the picture makes the products much easier to find. What you you said about the RR's being money is so very true I to like to think of it as money but I can't seem to find all of these coupons that you show on your transactions for example the 2 liters pepsi's around here didn't have coupons and I also can't find all the tearpads with coupons either so I have to pay more out of pocket than what you seem to, so is there any suggestions as to what to do then? should we try buying it all even without the coupons in order to stockpile at a cheaper price? Also what do you do when you really need something that isn't giving you back register rewards?

I'm glad the picture is helpful. I always like seeing pictures when I'm looking at other people scenarios. I would say if you don't have the coupons for an item then really think about if it makes sense to buy them. For example if you drink pepsi the pepsi deal is still good even without the coupons because you are basically paying 1/2 price after the $10 RR but if it's something you really don't use much skip it.

Also, whenever you see a tearpad of coupons at the grocery store tear one off, even if you have no idea when you'll buy the item. That's how I got a lot of the tostito coupons I used last week. You never know when it might come in handy.

Finally, of course there are those times when you need something that's not on sale. In that case if you have RR or CVS Extra Care Bucks use that if those stores sell the item. It's still money but better to use that than actual cash. (Cash doesn't have an expiration date and I can't pay my mortgage in RR - although that would be awesome!).

Like this Sunday with the meters - I plan to take the RR I make buying those to buy some things that we need and don't give RR. Since it was with profit from the meters (those will cost $0.00, I don't even have to pay tax on those!)it really helps!